Al‑Jar thumma al‑Dar
Al-Jār thumma al-dār, (Arabic: الجارَ ثُمَّ الدَّارَ, lit: The neighbor, then the house), is a phrase derived from a well-known hadith[1] attributed to Fatimat al-Zahra (a).[2] It is narrated from Imam al-Hasan (a) that his mother spent the night of a Friday in worship, praying extensively for believing men and women by name, but not praying for herself. When he asked why she did not pray for herself as she did for others, she replied: O, My son, one should care for the neighbour before the house.[3]
Al-Shaykh al-Saduq, in chapter 145 of Ilal al-sharayi', transmits two narrations with separate chains of transmission that include the phrase "al-jar thumma al-dar." The first is narrated from Imam al-Hasan (a), and the second from Imam al-Kazim (a) on the authority of his forefathers; the two reports show no significant difference in content.[4] Al-Hurr al-'Amili considers it recommended to pray for other believers before praying for oneself, and he devotes a chapter to this practice in Wasa'il al-Shi'a, citing these two narrations as evidence for his view.[5]
Sayyid Ali Khan Madani, in his lexicon, has included this sentence with a different nuance among the proverbs concerning neighbours. According to him, this proverb highlights the importance of getting to know one's neighbours before settling in a place or purchasing a house.[6] In hadith collections such as al-Kafi and Tuhaf al-'uqul (book), there is a statement from Imam 'Ali (a) regarding the importance of the neighbor before choosing a house, whose wording also resembles the expression attributed to Lady Fatima (a).[7]
Mahdi Mihrizi, a scholar of hadith studies, has emphasized the necessity of considering the context in which a hadith was issued to understand the meaning of such traditions that share common wording.[8] The author of al-Ikhtisas reports from al‑Awza'i, a Sunni scholar, admonitions of Luqman the Wise to his son, which also includes the phrase "al‑jar thumma al‑dar" ("the neighbour before the house").[9]
Mystics and poets such as Attar of Nishapur and Al-Ghazali have attributed the phrase "al-jar thumma al-dar" to Rabi'a al-Adawiyya, a devout woman of the 8th/14th century.[10] Some scholars, citing hadith sources and the statements of Lady Fatima (a), have rejected this claim.[11] Mystics, however, have interpreted the meaning of this expression as God's preference over paradise and sincerity in worship.[12]
Notes
- ↑ Jamshīdī, Qawāʿid-i fahm-i ḥadīth, p. 60.
- ↑ Ṣadūq, ʿIlal al-sharāʾiʿ, vol. 1, p. 182.
- ↑ Ṣadūq, ʿIlal al-sharāʾiʿ, vol. 1, p. 182.
- ↑ Ṣadūq, ʿIlal al-sharāʾiʿ, vol. 1, p. 182.
- ↑ Ḥurr al-ʿĀmilī, Wasāʾil al-Shīʿa, vol. 7, p. 113.
- ↑ Madanī Shīrāzī, al-Ṭirāz al-awwal, vol. 7, p. 230.
- ↑ Kulaynī, al-Kāfī, vol. 8, p. 24; Ibn Shuʿba al-Ḥarrānī, Ṭuḥaf al-ʿuqūl, p. 86; Sayyid Raḍī, Nahj al-balāgha, p. 405.
- ↑ Mihrīzī, Ḥadīth pazhūhī, vol. 1, p. 179.
- ↑ Mufīd, al-Ikhtiṣāṣ, p. 337.
- ↑ Panāhī, al-Jār thumma al-dār, p. 32-34.
- ↑ Panāhī, al-Jār thumma al-dār, p. 34-36.
- ↑ Mullā Ṣadrā, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-karīm, vol. 4, p. 414; vol. 7, p. 399; Panāhī, al-Jār thumma al-dār, p. 33.
References
- Ḥurr al-ʿĀmilī, Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan al-. Wasāʾil al-Shīʿa. Edited by Muʾassisat Āl al-Bayt li-Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth. Qom: Muʾassisat Āl al-Bayt li-Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth, [n.d].
- Ibn Shuʿba al-Ḥarrānī, Ḥasan b. ʿAlī. Ṭuḥaf al-ʿuqūl. Edited by Ali Akbar Ghaffari. Qom: Jāmiʿat al-Mudarrisīn-i Ḥawza-yi ʿIlmiyya, 1404 AH.
- Jamshīdī, Asadullāh. Qawāʿid-i fahm-i ḥadīth. Journal of Maʿrifat, No 83. (1383 Sh).
- Kulaynī, Muḥammad b. Yaʿqūb al-. Al-Kāfī. Edited by ʿAlī Akbar Ghaffārī & Muḥammad Ākhūndī. 4th edition. Tehran: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmīyya, 1407 AH.
- Mufīd, Muḥammad b. Muḥammad al-. Al-Ikhtiṣāṣ. 1st edition. Qom: al-Muʾtamar al-ʿĀlamī li-Alfīyat al-Shaykh al-Mufīd, 1413 AH.
- Madanī Shīrāzī, ʿAlī Khān b. Aḥmad. Al-Ṭirāz al-awwal wa al-kināz li-mā ʿalayhi min lughat al-ʿArab al-muʿawwal. 1st edition. Mashhad: Muʾassisat Āl al-Bayt li-Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth, 1384 Sh.
- Mullā Ṣadrā, Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm. Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-karīm. Edited by Muḥammad Khājawī. 2nd edition. Qom: Intishārāt-i Bīdār, 1366 Sh.
- Mihrīzī, Mahdī. Ḥadīth pazhūhī. 2nd edition. Qom: Muʾassisa ʿIlmī Farhangī Dār al-Ḥadīth, 1390 Sh.
- Panāhī, Mahīn, Al-Jār thumma al-dār wa barrasī-yi maʾkhaz wa āmūzahā-yi akhlāqī wa ʿirfānī-yi ān. Journal of Pazhūhishhā-yi Islāmī, No 7. (1390 Sh).
- Sayyid Raḍī, Muḥammad Ḥusayn. Nahj al-balāgha. Edited by Ṣubḥī Ṣaliḥ. Qom: Dār al-Hijra, 1414 AH.
- Ṣadūq, Muḥammad b. ʿAlī al-. ʿIlal al-sharāʾiʿ. 1st edition. Qom: Intishārāt-i Dāwarī, 1385 Sh.